A bow sight is used to assist an archer in aiming a bow. A typical bow sight includes a sight housing secured to the frame of a bow by one or more brackets. The sight housing often defines a viewing opening (i.e., a sight window) through which an archer can frame a target. The bow sight also typically includes at least one sighting member that projects into the viewing opening. The sighting member defines and supports a sight point. The sight point is the point the archer aligns with the target during aiming. In use, the archer draws the drawstring of the bow and adjusts the position of the bow so that the intended target is visible through the viewing opening. While continuing to peer through the viewing opening with the bowstring drawn, the archer adjusts the position of the bow so that the sight point aligns with the intended target from the archer's eye. Once the sight point is aligned with the intended target, the archer releases the bowstring to shoot the arrow.
Many bow sights are equipped with multiple sighting members. The sighting members are typically arranged so as to define a plurality of separately visible sight points positioned vertically one above the other. The vertical positions of the sight points are preferably set so that each sight point corresponds to a different target distance. The sighting members are generally arranged in either a vertically aligned orientation (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,633, which is hereby incorporated by reference), or a horizontal orientation (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,568).
Sight point visibility is an important consideration in bow sights. To increase sight point visibility, many bow sights use fiber optic members (e.g., scintillating optical fibers) to define sight points. Such fiber optic members are capable of collecting ambient light along their lengths. The collected light is internally reflected within each fiber optic member and emitted from an end of the fiber at the sight point. Longer fiber optic members are able to collect more ambient light and generate brighter sight points at their ends than shorter fiber optic members. To accommodate longer fiber optic members, various wrapping configurations have been developed (e.g., see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,418,633 and 6,601,380).